Marathon Ends Up Going To Santoro

Match A New Feat On Clay At French Open

May 26, 2004|By Charles Bricker Staff Writer

PARIS — Two days, six hours and 33 minutes of tennis and, at the end, tears of relief from the winner, Fabrice Santoro.

The little French veteran, one of the few players on tour who hits double-handed off both sides, sat in his changeover chair after defeating Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 3-6, 16-14 and let it flow before placing a towel over his head.

Then he rose, saluted the crowd, which had long ago gotten to its feet to exalt the two warriors, and exited, looking eerily as fresh as if he had just gone on court.

"You need will," Santoro said. "You need experience, obviously. But it's a tiny difference in any case who wins. A few centimeters. You always need someone to win a match, and today it was my turn. You have to be brave, and what I did in the last game, it takes a lot of courage and will."

Serving for the match, Santoro was down love-40 before reeling off five consecutive points to send Clement into a deeply unhappy mood.

Told later that they had set a Grand Slam record by playing six hours and 33 minutes, Clement snapped: "I really don't care about it. Frankly, I don't give a damn. Do I get a medal? If I'm not getting anything, I'm not interested.''

When the two men left the court because of darkness on Monday night, it was 5-5 in the fifth set and they had already played four hours and 40 minutes.

"[Tuesday] morning, I think just two rackets are enough, and one liter of drink," Santoro said. "I think maybe we play 10, 15 minutes, maybe a half-hour.

"And we played two hours."

He was down to his last racket at the end and had he broken another string, he had no idea what he would have done.

Santoro's game is all spins and slices, drop shots and retrievals. He seldom drives the ball hard, instead looping the ball to within inches of the baseline. He doesn't often give opponents a good shot to hit.

Amazingly, there were only three match points, two for Clement. And both men admitted that, despite their years as professionals, nerves played a role in the outcome.

"When things are close, it gets tense," Clement said. "Who isn't tense in a match? If someone has a miracle for not getting tense, I'd like to know it."

Two other American women who qualified with Perry lost. Teryn Ashley of Boston was beaten by No. 20 seed Conchita Martinez and Kelly McCain of Tampa lost to No. 29 Petra Mandula.

FRENCH OPEN LONGEST MATCHES

Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement set an Open era record for longest match at a Grand Slam, though this one was achieved over two days with Santoro winning.

Time Year Players

6:33 2004 Fabrice Santoro d. Arnaud Clement

5:31 1998 Alex Corretja d. Hernan Gumy

5:25 1984 John Frawley d. Hans Schwaier

Note: The 71 total games tied the record for most games in a French Open match since the tiebreak era began in 1973. Ronald Agenor of Haiti defeated David Prinosil of Germany in a 71-game five-setter in 1994.